U.S. Top 25 Most Dangerous Neighborhoods

I grew up in the Midwest. My hometown has just over 2,000 people, more churches than bars, and no stop lights--only a flashing red light at what everyone refers to as "the four-way stop." My hometown doesn't really have bad neighborhoods as far as violent crime is concerned, only neighborhoods with more or less money.

This afternoon, my dad sent me an email forward. He likes the email forward. The subject heading was "25 Most Dangerous Neighborhoods." My dad writes in abbreviations--his own baby boomer version of a texting language. He sent me a link to the article with his abbreviated commentary mentioning that 4 of the top 25 most dangerous neighborhoods are in Chicago (where my sister lives)--the most of any city. No city had 3 neighborhoods listed but Baltimore, Dallas, Kansas City, Memphis and Orlando all had 2. "Only 1 Philadelphia neighborhood made the list," he wrote with a :)

My dad also observed that no East LA, Torrance, Oakland or other California cities were listed. No Phoenix, San Antonio, Houston, Vegas, New Orleans, Alabama or Mississippi in the top 25. He ended the email by saying, "Hope you find this interesting."

I guess I did. The report was based on FBI data from 17,000 local law enforcement agencies. They broke it down by neighborhood vs. cities because as we Philadelphia residents know, even cities with high crime rates can have safe neighborhoods. I've pasted the Philadelphia information below, but here's the full article.

25 Most Dangerous Neighborhoods

AOL

16. (Worst) Philadelphia, Pa.

Neighborhood: Broad St./Dauphin St.
Found Within ZIP Code(s): 19132, 19133
Predicted Annual Violent Crimes: 199
Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 117.13
My Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 9

' More on This Neighborhood